Rejuvenate Your Practice with Residual Income

Chiropractic EconomicsDecember 28, 1997

We caught up with Dr. John Connors as he completed the multi-million dollar sale of his six Phoenix clinics. How was he able to essentially ‘retire’ at 50, yet continually increase his income and lifestyle? Residual income. Can anybody do it? Yes!

Everybody is always thinking, “What can I do to improve my health?” Especially today the health market is so large and the trend is people are interested in improving their health. They know they are going to live longer. In this society we are looking for more correct information to make correct decisions. I always ask, “Are you going to outlast your money? Are you going to live to the maximum of health? Or is your money going to outlast you? And is your health still going to be there if it does?”

Your standard of living is going to decrease if managed care continues. You say, “Well, I’ll just work more.” Well, if you work more, you just decreased your standard of living. If you give up some of your income, you just decreased your standard of living. I don’t believe that life is meant to have scarcity­­ life was meant to have abundance and there’s many that do.

Yet, roughly 87%, according to statistics, retire in poverty. Well, why did 13% not? Correct knowledge. Correct result. As they say, “Broke people make broke decisions.” The only way you can change a wrong decision is to incorporate a new decision based on right information which would lead to a right decision. That’s really our business, to relate and communicate the correct knowledge to people; increase their awareness so they can enjoy more success if they want it.

The best way to look at work is:

Decrease work time.

Increase income.

Is that really possible? Because the closer you get to the target of success, someone moves the target. So you become less enthusiastic, but you persevere. Now 15 years later you may have secured a nice nest egg, but because of inflation or a bad investment, naivete or just a wrong decision, you find yourself enslaved again to someone, which may be the government or HMO’s or even your own employees. It’s one of those things, who works for who? Who owns who? Do you own the business or does the business own you? I had over 52 employees and anywhere from 6-12 doctors at any one given time, and of course dealing with the personal injury cases, worker’s comp cases, attorneys not dealing fairly with you, employees not coming in on time or not coming in at all. These small things over the years develop into big things.

I think everyone would like to have some source, even if it’s just a small inkling of hope, that there is something bonafide and substantial that could lead to something big. Or at least big enough to fill the gap to allow them to have five years to practice where they really wish to practice.

I spent sixteen years looking for a product for my six clinics and I thought even if I looked another sixteen years, I would never find it. Then my financial advisor said, “I want you to call this internist. She is one of the finest medical doctors, in fact her father is president of the Board of Examiners, and she has a product that may be of interest to you.”

I thought, “Oh, yeah, she’s not going to talk to me.” But I picked up the phone and called her and she spent about 20-30 minutes with me. The most amazing thing was she told me she would send me product samples at no charge. All of the other products prior to that I had to buy.

I hung up the phone and told my wife, “Sandy, that has got to be one of the greatest deals of all time or one of the smoothest scams I’ve ever been introduced to.”

Well, lo and behold, the product samples arrived, with everything she said and more. I tried one of the products and I noticed a result within an hour. I thought it was in my head, so I gave it to my wife, my kids, my employees­­ and they all benefitted. I knew we had something.

My financial advisor was telling me that this product involved a residual methodology of income. I’m talking about two incomes­­ one is immediate linear income, and the second, the residual, maximizes your income and minimizes your efforts. Or think of it as getting paid today for something you did a day ago or a year ago, or 10 years ago. It’s appealing because unless you are a song writer or a movie star or maybe an insurance agent, that isn’t going to be the case.

So my answer involved residual income, but I never really understood residual income. I had closed my mind because I wasn’t going to listen to anything related to MLM (multi-level marketing).

I thought MLM was Amway or Mary Kay’s pink Cadillac­­ stock your car- the front seat, back seat, and trunk- then go door-to-door and to your friends. Pedal, push, and coerce your people to buy whatever you are selling. Get their receipt, but hold their check because they are short on money that week. I wasn’t about to do that. I would rather be a slave to my practice than a slave to that particular system, because at least I had pride. Even though I may have been a slave, I was a proud slave.

Well, the unbelievable happened. It was unbelievable, unnatural, and uncomfortable. Here was a situation where you could virtually out-earn your income. I don’t care if you are talking 6 or 7 figures, because you must realize that even with a 6 – 7 figure income, you are still only as good as your last adjustment, last sale, and last transaction period. What if you had a 6 – 7 figure income and your income kept growing, even if you were doing other things? Nice concept.

Well, that concept is a reality­­ I really never believed it­­unless you were doing something illegal to make that occur. I didn’t realize that there is an industry over 53-years-old that’s never had a down year, produced more millionaires and provided more opportunity at a very rapid pace if you understand it.

Now the hard part is understanding. The hard part is getting the correct knowledge for the correct result. And that was the part I never got until a year and six months ago. The way it works is as simple as this:

I use the products.

I share my results with others.

I share products by giving samples.

I enable people to buy wholesale directly from the company, or retail if they choose.

I share with them the opportunity to earn money by duplicating the first four steps.

Understand that after I got involved in this program, I pushed aside contracts offering me seven more clinics with 32 in the hopper. Contracts on ten with another option of 20. I put all that aside because this was a lot more lucrative, due to the residual income, and a lot less stressful. Virtually no risk.

Think about this analogy: if I give you the opportunity to have three McDonald’s restaurants or 100­­ could you handle 100? Only if you could duplicate. With this business the infrastructure allows you to duplicate and doesn’t require the necessity for a lot of people, you just need the right people. It’s about development. We are teaching people how to be happy and healthy.

So this particular business is really and truly a business, but more importantly it’s a business done in a professional way; something you can be proud of. But it’s not for everybody. You have to have the desire, you have to be willing to want to change and be teachable. You’d be surprised at how many people are non teachable.

Now I am truly doing what I love to do, and that is working with and helping people develop themselves to help the development of others. In business there are the two “p’s,”­­ the paper and the people. I always liked the people, I never liked the paper. Well, when my practice became solely administrative, it became laborious and discouraging. The real business is the people business and that is the business that has always gotten me excited.

I’ve been blessed, I’ve been very successful, but I’ve always cautioned myself to still be a student. A lot of people get a success-factor and they think, “I’ve been successful over here, then I can transfer that same success habit or principle here.” Well, that’s not always the case, especially in a business so misunderstood as multi-level marketing, one must become a student again.

My wife and I have a philosophy for happiness. It’s real simple. We always say the three ingredients for happiness in life are:

Positive health.

Positive relationships.

Positive cash flow.

I read not too long ago, “The highest thought is is the thought of joy, the clearest word is is the word of truth, the grandest feeling is the feeling of love.” I believe that the dedication to truth, the acceptance of responsibility, and the incorporation of fun is a formula that makes life’s journey a little easier. Not taking yourself seriously, but taking relationships seriously begets a fuller and more abundant business.

I’ve been very fortunate financially, although I’ve never really thought about money for the sake of money. I’ve just thought about what I’ve wanted for my wife, what I’ve wanted for my children, what I’ve wanted for my community, and the lifestyle I’ve wanted to live. Since this is is not a dress-rehearsal, I wanted to take advantage of experiencing all that you could experience. Well, think about it. If you want it you can get it. It’s that determination . I was taught that the words, “I can’t,” and “I’ll try,” are truly a lie.

From the age of seven until now I always looked for road maps to success. This is one that is very doable and duplicable. All you need to do is start­­don’t worry about the finish.

HOW I GOT STARTED

I was born in 1946 into a family that did very well. I witnessed my father and mother starting two restaurants and doing well, and then losing it all. So I experienced wealth and poverty as a young man. I was fortunate that my best friend had successful parents. His father was a mentor to me and taught me, along with his son, some principles in business and life.

I did not know it back then, but those lessons are subconsciously implanted. What it really did was teach me a lifestyle that I had only dreamt of. I didn’t believe in the European adage that, “If you are born a dime, you stay a dime. You don’t get to be a quarter.” I just couldn’t buy that mentality in America.

My friend had that life, why couldn’t I? So I just grew with him and learned those important principles. I began my own distribution business with my wife, Sandra. Then I went into the health spa industry because I always had the desire to help others change their lives with better health. Feeling the need to to do more in the industry, it wasn’t until a severe athletic injury to my lower back and a refusal for surgery lead me to chiropractic. It just changed my life so drastically that I had to investigate the profession. To make a long story short, I became a D.C. in 1979 after graduating from Sherman College of Chiropractic.

I developed one clinic to six, and like multi-level marketing, never had a down year. Life is good. Dealing with the responsibilities of success, the operative words are belief, commitment, and the desire to make your dream a reality. God has blessed me with the desire to be a student and a leader, but more importantly, the knowledge to assume the correct role at the correct time.s

Editor’s Note:

Dr. Connors pursued post graduate studies in trauma, pain management, sports medicine, orthopedic neurology, diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries, chiropractic orthopedics, and other related subjects to enable him to expand his Natural Life Centers’ practice and philosophy, which involves educational programs designed to actively involve patients in their personal health. In the early to mid-eighties, he served as team chiropractor to the Arizona Wranglers and Outlaws professional football teams. If you are interested in additional information (a three-minute recorded message from Dr. Connors) you may call toll-free 1-888-553-2221.

Ideal product & Business

I spent sixteen years looking for a product for my clinics and referred to this list in making my final decision:

Product (exclusive versus commodities).

Strong management and infrastructure.

Market trend- Growing or saturated?

Target market- Limited or unlimited?

Earning potential (today and next 2, 5, and 10 years).

Return on investment (compared to alternatives, a little or no debt).

Risk (high or low?).

Is duplication simple?

How many millionaires has the industry produced?

Fun versus a job

A person told me the other day, “Oh, I got a great job. It’s a job that pays great and has a great future.” I said, “It cannot be great because it’s a job. A great future is not in a job, but in an opportunity.” You can recognize an opportunity by these 10 qualifiers.